About Us
WHERE WE STARTED
In the early 2000s, many people drank coffee without thinking much about it. I couldn't stop thinking about it.
During my time as a social worker, I was meeting with students in local coffeehouses. I found myself constantly talking about what makes exceptional coffee.
How it's sourced, roasted, how it's brewed. And why doing it right matters.
In 2007, with the help of my younger brother Gabe, we took a pair of hammers to an old rundown building in the Germantown neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky.
After a lot of love and elbow grease, we opened the first Quills. That first shop taught us everything. We learned that great coffee can create the kind of spaces where people can connect.
We learned that when you blend fine coffee with a touch of southern hospitality, when you prioritize connection over speed, something special happens.
You make places where strangers can become friends. Where a writer finds her words in a warm corner seat. Where a company might be founded on the back of a napkin. Where first dates can turn into something more.
When our first building was about to be sold and we had to move, our regular customer Tommy O'Shea helped us find a new home in the Highlands. That shop on Baxter Avenue runs to this day.
We’ve grown since then. Today, we roast our coffee in small batches right here in Louisville. Because we wanted better control over the whole experience we were creating. Today we have six cafes here and one in downtown Indianapolis. But at the heart of it all, the vision hasn’t changed: Great coffee. Great spaces. Great hospitality.
We work with our producers and sourcing partners around the world who care deeply about quality. The close work we do with them means that every cup you drink is connected to real people, real farms, and a commitment to doing things the right way.
WHY WE'RE HERE
Quills Coffee is here to deliver coffee that connects people. Between the barista behind the counter and the customer in front of it, between strangers at neighboring tables, between all of us and the farmers who picked the coffee we're enjoying. We believe delivering great coffee is a chance to make memorable human experiences. It's a chance for us to sit together, to pause, to talk, to connect.
HOW WE WORK
The French have a word—terroir. It means "the taste of the place itself." The soil where something grows, the climate that shapes it, the hands that tend it. It's why a coffee cherry from Guatemala tastes different from one grown in Ethiopia. The earth was different, the rain was different, and so the taste is different.At Quills, we cultivate our own kind of "terroir" with three core values: Genuine Care, Continuous Craft, and Creative Education.
Genuine Care
We serve with warmth, hospitality, and attention to the people around us. The barista learns your name. She asks how you are. She's there with you. She polishes tables not because her manager watches, but because she knows someone's going to sit there with their morning coffee. The roastery team works hard to find new and exciting coffees, because they care about curating a delightful selection for every customer. Managers work to make their cafes places where people want to gather and come back to. Whether it's behind the bar, in the roastery, or in the training lab, the warmth comes from our people who want to create a place for connection.
Continuous Craft
Excellence is not an accident. It's hundreds of small decisions made correctly every day. Water temperature, grind size, the timing of every shot. It's about constant improvement. We test, we taste, we tweak. Because coffee is a craft worth perfecting. It's the barista who continues to develop his palate, to steam his milk to silk, to create a beautiful presentation every time. The manager who continues to hone our hospitality. The roaster improves their skill batch after batch. We're committed to an excellence and beauty in our craft.
Creative Education
Knowledge belongs to anyone who wants it. The customer who asks why this coffee tastes like chocolate gets a real answer from our team—about the processing, the roast, the origin. They adjust their language and make learning feel safe and exciting, never intimidating. A new barista learning to pull shots gets the time to understand, not just run through the motions. We light up when we share knowledge. And we share it freely, because we want you to love coffee as much as we do. Because we believe knowledge can deepen every coffee experience.
Where We're Going
Like soil worked for years, our own terroir gets richer with time. We're not trying to be the biggest coffee company, or the fastest. We're building a place where quality lives, where every cup carries the taste of work done right, and—most importantly—where people come to connect with other people.
— Nathan Quillo, Founder
